Yes, And

Publisher's Summary

The Second City has launched the careers of celebrated comic performers such as Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert and produced award-winning content. But it's the actual improvisational process developed and honed over the years by The Second City that has become its legacy. Players master an ability to cocreate in ensembles using philosophies that celebrate a "yes, and" approach. They embrace authenticity and failure and espouse the idea of "following the follower", which allows any member of the team to assume a leadership role. For more than two decades, The Second City has taken these same principles to thousands of corporate clients, showing leaders how to apply the tools of improv to common business challenges. Here, for the first time, Second City executives Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton describe how you can use the same skills that thrill audiences around the world to improve your emotional intelligence, increase creativity, and learn to pivot out of tight and uncomfortable situations. In this engaging, often humorous, and highly practical audiobook, you will learn how to become a more compelling leader and a more collaborative follower by employing the seven elements of improv:

Yes, And, by which you give every idea a chance on which to be acted Ensemble, reconciling the needs of individuals with those of the broader team Cocreation, which highlights the importance of dialogue in creating new products, processes, and relationships Authenticity, or being unafraid to speak truth to power, challenge convention, and break the rules Failure, teaching us that not only is it okay to fail, but we should always include it as part of our process Follow the Follower, which gives any member of the group the chance to assume a leadership role Listening, in which you learn to stay in the moment and know the difference between listening to understand and listening merely to respond

What the Critics Say

"Narrating a most engaging lesson on being productive and influencing others at work, Alan Winter communicates a natural enthusiasm that makes you like him right away and trust his understanding of the authors' message. His vocal personality, pacing, and articulation draw listeners in and make them want to stay connected." (AudioFile)

Sorry for the Short Delay

Unfortunately, that depends on our systems, and they're keeping it to themselves. It could take a few minutes, but there's a chance it will be longer. We recommend that you check back with us in a few hours, when your title should be available for download in My Library. We appreciate your patience, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Please contact customer service if the problem persists.
(888) 283-5051

Enter Promo Code

See More Like This

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

The Title is all you learn from the book

I bought this book to learn about improvisation. All I got from it was that Second City has a department that works with businesses to teach improvisation skills. This book is basically an infomercial so that more businesses will hire them.

This book does so many different situations in which improvisation works to help the situation, but doesn't explain how to improve improvisation skills.

It's as if you were in a math class and the teacher kept saying "use the quadratic formula! Use the quadratic formula! Use the quadratic formula," without ever putting the quadratic formula on the board of explaining how it works.

I have never been more disappointed in an audible purchase.

To add insult to injury the narrator kept breathing in the middle of the sentences because he couldn't finish the thought of the page. That was super annoying.

Would you try another book from Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton and/or Alan Winter?

No. It never seems to get to any points advertised. Very disorganized presentation.

What three words best describe Alan Winter’s performance?

Very good

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment. I wanted something useful. I'm not going to hire Second City to come to my meeting and make a point using sketch comedy.

Any additional comments?

I thought the book would would focus on "showing leaders how to apply the tools of improv to common business challenges", as described. Instead, this was a rambling pile of name-dropping. The book meanders through business-type situations (without getting to the meat of what was done) and quickly returns to theatre performances - even describing the number of people in the audience, and whether they were grumpy.